The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii after a 4.8magnitude quake that occurred on the Big Island Sunday morning.
The quake took place in the Hilina Region of Kilauea Volcano at 5:54 a.m.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) says the magnitude 4.8 earthquake was followed by several aftershocks, the largest of which was a magnitude 3.4 earthquake at 6:06 a.m.
The earthquakes were located 5 miles south of the summit of Kilauea Volcano, almost directly below the Kulanaokuaiki campground within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, at a depth of about 20 miles.
According to Wes Thelen, HVO’s Seismic Network Manager, “These earthquakes were most likely structural adjustments of the Earth’s crust due to the weight of the island on the underlying mantle. The earthquake likely occurred on a near-horizontal fault plane in the mantle, which has hosted earthquakes in this region before. Despite their location near Kilauea’s summit, it’s unlikely that the earthquakes were volcanic in nature due to their depth, which is below, and offset from, the volcano’s known magma plumbing system.”
HVO Scientist-in-Charge Jim Kauahikaua added that the earthquakes had no apparent effect on Kilauea’s ongoing eruptions. “HVO monitoring networks have not detected any significant changes in activity at the summits or rift zones of Kilauea or other Hawaiian volcanoes.”
The magnitude 4.8 earthquake was felt throughout the Island of Hawaii, as well as on parts of Maui and Oahu. According to the USGS “Did you feel it?” website, almost 400 felt reports within the first hour of the earthquake.
Kauahikaua said the larger event is only the second earthquake with a magnitude greater than 4 to occur at this location and depth since the start of Kilauea’s ongoing East Rift Zone eruption in 1983. The first one occurred on February 17, 2000. There were six such earthquakes in the 20 years before Kilauea’s ongoing East Rift Zone eruption began.
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